The Wilderness - The Israelites and the Pillar of Cloud

Good morning, everybody. My name is Gregg Hampton.

I'm one of the pastors here at the house. If

we've never met, I would love to meet you. We

could get a coffee. I enjoy coffee, but if you

don't like coffee, we could get a soda or water

or whatever works for you. But I would love to

hang out with you and get to know you and just

hear your story, maybe even talk about Jesus.

We are in our third week of a series that we're

calling The Wilderness. Week one, we looked at

the story of Hagar. She said that I have met

The God who sees me. We were reminded that we

are not invisible. God has not lost track of

us. Last week we looked at the story of Moses

in the burning bush. And remember that God invites

us to be part of the solution. We're also reminded

that we're never meant to lose our spiritual

curiosity. There was something in a spiritual

curiosity that caused Moses to go and look at

what was happening. And we are meant to keep

our eyes open in the same way because we never

know when we're going to see a burning bush and

have to decide whether we're going to ignore

it or whether we're going to go see what God

is doing. Today, we're going to jump forward

a bit. in the scriptures to when the israelites

were wandering in the wilderness so let's go

ahead and jump in if you have a bible let's open

it up to the book of numbers if you don't have

a bible there's blue bibles on the tables you

can open up uh one of those you can take one

of those home if you really need one download

the bible from uh bible app It goes Genesis,

Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Numbers

is the fourth book of the Bible or the fourth

book of what's called the Torah or the Pentateuch.

And this might be the first sermon we've ever

done straight out of Numbers. I'm going to get

a shirt that says straight out of Numbers. All

right. And we have a tradition that during the

sermon, when the scriptures are read in the context

of the sermon, that we give it our full attention.

You can do that any way that you see fit. But

if you would like to or able to stand with me,

you are welcome to do that as well as I read.

Numbers 9, starting with verse 15. Numbers 9,

Numbers 9:15

verse 15. On the day the tabernacle was set up,

the cloud covered the tabernacle. The tent of

the covenant. And from evening until morning

it was over the tabernacle, having the appearance

of fire. It was always so. The cloud covered

it by day and the appearance of fire by night.

Whenever the cloud lifted from over the tent,

then the Israelites would set out. And in the

place where the cloud settled down, there the

Israelites would camp. Verse 18, at the command

of the Lord, the Israelites would set out. And

at the command of the Lord, they would camp.

As long as the cloud rested over the tabernacle,

they would remain in camp. Let us pray. God of

every tribe, every tongue, every color, every

nation, we thank you for the scriptures, that

they have persisted throughout the millennia,

that we still have them to consider, to learn

from, and whatever you have for us today, I pray

that it would stick, that it would become a part

of the framework of our faith. That our faith

would become stronger as we become more like

your son, Jesus. Amen. Thanks, y 'all. You can

have a seat. Okay, so the Israelites are in the

wilderness, but why are they in the wilderness?

I'm going to go... All the way back 400 years

earlier, Jacob was the grandson of Father Abraham,

and Jacob had many sons. That old song, Father

Abraham had many sons. That's actually wrong.

Abraham did not have many sons. It was Jacob

that had the many sons, but Abraham is the patriarch

of the Israelite people, and so it's credited

to him. Jacob had 12 sons that were the beginning

of the 12. But it says that Jacob actually favored

one of his sons. Anybody know which son that

was? Joseph. He favored Joseph above all the

others. And so the older brothers actually became

very jealous of Joseph. Have you ever heard of

Joseph in the amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat?

That is a reference to this story. Because his

father gave him a very special robe that... made

him distinct and stand out. So everyone else

was jealous of him. And so what happened is they

pretend that Joseph died. They tell their father,

Jacob, that his favorite son had been killed

by an animal. But what had actually happened

is they had thrown him into a pit and then they

sold him into slavery. Long story short, Joseph

ends up in Egypt and God elevates him to second

in command in Egypt next to the Pharaoh. And

he's reunited with his family, bringing them

to Egypt, saving them from famine. And they stayed

there for the next 400 years. By the time we

get to Moses, the scripture says that there was

a Pharaoh that did not remember Joseph, that

did not remember what Joseph had done for Egypt.

And he grows intimidated and afraid. And so he

becomes abusive and oppressive to the Israelite

people in the Egyptian lands. Last week, we talked

about how God called Moses to go back to Egypt

and lead the people out. Spoiler alert, they

got out. And now the Israelites are in the wilderness

because that is exactly where God wants them

to be. They're in the wilderness because it's

exactly where God wants them to be. Not forever,

but for now. When we feel like we are in a wilderness

of our own, it's not always a comfortable thing

to think that it is exactly where God wants us.

Not because he wants us to suffer or feel spiritually

dry or lonely. That's not at all why he had the

Israelites in the wilderness. It was so that

they would learn how to follow. It was so that

they would find who they really are. For hundreds

of years, the Israelites were enslaved in a polytheistic

culture. Remember, last week we mentioned this

polytheistic or polytheism. It just means that

there are multiple gods that get worshipped.

But the Israelites, their roots were in what's

called monotheism, the worship of one God, that

there is only one God. And over the centuries,

they had had their culture stripped away, their

identity diluted by the prevalence and power

of their surroundings. Their worship of the one

God of their ancestors had been displaced. If

you actually go back and look at what God tells

Moses to do, he said, I want you to lead my people

out that they might worship me at this mountain.

When Moses goes, that's what he says. We want

you to let us go just so that we can go out and

worship. He's calling them back to the worship

of the one true God of their ancestors. Their

worship had been displaced. Their worship, their

identity, their culture had been diluted and

erased. If you don't know what I mean by that,

we... did the same thing here in this country

to the people that we kidnapped and enslaved

from other countries. We brought them here. We

stripped them of their original culture. We told

them to assimilate. And to this day, even though

they are free, there is still a journey of discovery,

finding what it looks like to be fully themselves

in a land that stripped their ancestors of everything.

More generally speaking. There is an ongoing,

centuries -long desaturation of honest -to -goodness

Christianity in America. We underestimate to

what extent our surroundings and prevailing culture

can dilute and strip away what God is really

calling us to be. Who we really are. Just think

for a second. About any number of things that

are happening in America right now in the name

of being a good Christian. And ask yourself,

does that look like America or does that look

like Jesus? So much of Christianity has been

wrapped with an American flag instead of the

body and blood of Jesus Christ. but if history

teaches us anything, it's that empires can only

stand for so long before God raises up a voice

like Moses, like a Dr. King, and lifts up a people

like the Israelites to break the chains. But

even then, it isn't always a straight line from

oppression to the promised land. I'll say that

again. It is not always a straight line from

oppression to the promised land. There is often

a wilderness in between. And that wilderness

is almost always the place that we are meant

to meet God so that we can learn how to follow,

how to reject our cultural conditioning, to find

who we are really meant to be. And so in the

wilderness, God had the Israelites all alone.

All to himself for 40 years outside of the polytheistic

environment that they had been in for hundreds

of years. The place where the culture of Egypt

could now fade away into the sand, under the

dirt. Now that doesn't mean that there weren't

bumps in the road for them in the wilderness.

If you've ever heard of the Ten Commandments,

maybe you have. You might be familiar with the

idea that while Moses was meeting with God, getting

the Ten Commandments, that the people of God

were down in the valley fashioning a golden calf.

That they might worship and say that this is

the God that has done all of the good things

for us. Because their Egyptian conditioning was

not completely gone yet. It's no coincidence

that the first commandment is, I am the Lord

your God. You will have no other gods before

me. It's after this that God gives them something

new. At first, the idea was that they would see

the pillar of cloud and the appearance of fire

at night, and that that would be enough to believe

that God was there. They'd already seen all the

miracles in Egypt, the parting of the sea. What

more? Could they ask for? But there's something

about us humans. We like something tangible.

Something that we can touch. It's part of the

reason that they fashioned a golden calf. It's

because they could touch it. It looked like something

they could identify. But God doesn't give them

an idol. He gives them a place to worship him.

It gives them a tabernacle, a place to worship,

a place to be reminded that there is only one

God. And the presence of that God will rest on

that place. And you will know that this is our

place, my place, because my presence will be

there. And every day or week or month when God

would move, they would pack up that tabernacle,

follow the pillar of cloud, and it rest whenever

it. would rest. All they had to do was follow

this one God. Why does it seem like it's so much

easier to follow a hundred gods than just one?

The God of money, the God of work, the God of

popularity, the God of intelligence, the God

of... Why does it seem so... We become so fractured,

and it seems like, why is it easier to follow

100 ideas instead of one? All they had to do

was follow, but also, all they had to do was

stay when God stayed. I wonder if we actually

undervalue just how much of finding ourselves

is found in learning how to stay where Jesus

stays. and only going when Jesus goes. And I

wonder if it, at least for the Israelites in

this story, that maybe the staying was the harder

part of the following. If you open Numbers back

up to that same chapter, verse 17 that we read,

it says they would stay when it was time to stay.

Verse 18, it says they would stay when it was

time to stay. And then in the next five verses

that we did not read, in all five of them, it

says it again in different ways. Verse 19, and

they would not set out. Verse 20, they would

remain in camp. 21, only when the cloud lifted

would they set out. 22, the Israelites would

remain in camp and would not set out. Verse 23,

in the command of the Lord, at the command of

the Lord is when they would set out. Every single

verse reiterates that they only moved if God

moved. They always stayed when God stayed. I

feel like we should stop here for a second and

every single one of us just listen to the Lord.

Just for a second. Stop listening to me and just

listen to the Lord. Ask if... Our heart needs

convincing that even if we are in a wilderness,

that we do not need to get moving. Even if we

feel that we are experiencing wilderness, that

maybe we don't need to be in a hurry. We don't

need to get our feet moving. We don't need to

pack up the tent yet. Because part of learning

to follow is knowing how to stay. Part of learning

to follow. He's learning how to stay. God will

always lead you into the promise in his right

time. And if we are in a hurry, we might forget

that promises aren't always entered without a

fight. For the Israelites, the other side of

the wilderness was not just a promised land,

but it was what? It was war. It was battles.

It was fights. The Israelites didn't enter their

promise peacefully. Some of us might be in too

big of a hurry to get out of the wilderness because

we don't realize there might be a battle coming

that we're not actually ready for. And God is

using this time to teach us who we are, to teach

us how to follow. To show us how to only go when

God goes. And to stay when God stays. So that

when we meet adversity, not the passive adversity

of a wilderness, of course the question of, oh,

where's food going to come this morning? Oh,

well, maybe God will just drop it on the ground

just like he did yesterday. Not just the passive

adversity, but the active adversity of a battle

that stands between us and God's promise. We

will need to know. Who God says that we are in

those moments. My kids, when they're having challenges

at school, one of the things that we tell them,

one of the most important things you need to

know is who God says you are. Because that will

shape everything else that you do. We will need

to know who God says that we are. We will need

to trust that God is who God says he is. And

we will need to follow God's lead. implicitly.

Without time in the wilderness, we could reach

that day and think that we can do all of it on

our own. But if there are battles worth fighting

for your future, a battle of faith, a battle

of meaning, a battle of belief, a battle for

family, it's better that we learn now. That God

is actually the one that fights not only with

us, but for us. So that we don't believe that

we're in this all alone. So that we don't believe

that we don't need God to overcome the challenges

in front of us. As I close, I hope... all three

weeks really, I hope that in this series that

what you're hearing is that even if you're in

a wilderness, it is not forever. It's for now.

But there's purpose there. A wilderness is not

an accident. It is a place of shaping, a place

of defining, a place of learning to follow, a

place of seeing that God is the one who sees,

a place of curiosity, a place of finding yourself.

Because you find God. And then, the last word

is this. The really great news is that we don't

have to look for a pillar of cloud or a pillar

of fire resting over a building like this. Some

of us might think that would be really great.

Oh, then I would know that I'm definitely at

the right church. Or I would definitely know

where God is moving. Or I would... If I could

just see the pillar above the building. But what

the scriptures now teach us is that we, each

of us, are the temple of the living God. That

each of us are traveling tabernacles with the

presence of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us.

And in some ways that feels harder. Because remember

us humans, we like something tangible. I think

the most tangible thing that I can point you

to is to just look around the room. Just notice

the other people. The other people that are filled

with the Holy Spirit, that are just trying to

follow the Lord. And if ever you wonder... Is

the Lord in this place? I'm not talking about

this church. I'm talking about wherever you are,

is the Lord in this place? Just reach out and

grab someone from this room. And stay when God

stays. And then together, go where God goes.

Amen? Let's pray. Jesus, for 12 years, we've

been praying that we would become more like you.

Jesus, my hope, my ask is that the battles that

so many in this room have been fighting, that

they would see victories by your hand, that they

would feel more than ever that they know who

they are because they know who you are, and that

this year would be the year that so many of us

feel... That more than ever, that we are defined

by the likeness of Jesus. That we would look

like you, talk like you. That our cultural conditioning

would fade. And then what we would see in ourselves

and what the world would see in us is you. Amen.